The concept of fair weather electricity deals with the electric field and the electric current in the atmosphere propagated by the conductivity of the air or other gases. On Earth, clear, calm air carries an electrical current, which is the return path for thousands of lightening storms simultaneously occurring at any given moment around the Earth. For simplicity, this energy may be referred to as static electricity or static energy. FIG. 1 illustrates a weather circuit for returning the current from lightning, for example, back to ground 10. Weather currents 20, 30 return the cloud to ground current 40.
In a lightening storm, an electrical charge is built up, and electrons arc across a gas, ionizing it and producing the lightening flash. As one of ordinary skill in the art understands, the complete circuit requires a return path for the lightening flash. The atmosphere is the return path for the circuit. The electric field due to the atmospheric return path is relatively weak at any given point because the energy of thousands of electrical storms across the planet are diffused over the atmosphere of the entire Earth during both fair and stormy weather. Other contributing factors to electric current being present in the Earth's atmosphere or above the surface or in the atmosphere of other planets may include cosmic rays penetrating and interacting with the planet's surface and/or atmosphere, and also the creation and migration of electrically charged ions, as well as other effects yet to be fully studied.
Some of the ionization near the surface of a planet or in the lower atmosphere is caused by airborne radioactive substances. In most places on Earth, ions are formed at a rate of 5-10 pairs per cubic centimeter per second at sea level. With increasing altitude, cosmic radiation causes the ion production rate to increase. In areas with high radon exhalation from the soil (or building materials), the rate may be much higher.
Alpha-active materials are also responsible for atmospheric ionization. Each alpha particle (for instance, from a decaying radon atom) will, over its range of some centimeters, create approximately 150,000-200,000 ion pairs.
While there is a large amount of usable energy available in the atmosphere of Earth, as well as above the surface or in the atmosphere of other bodies in space, a method or apparatus for efficiently collecting that energy has not been forthcoming. Therefore, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the industry to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.